College Football Betting in Week 9

If the tendency of most football bettors is to back favorites and overs (and that's what we often hear from the “experts”), then bettors got the better of the bookmakers this past college football weekend.

Favorites went 40-13 straight-up and 29-23-1 against the pointspreads during week 9 betting action. And the biggest favorites led the way. Each of the seven teams favored by 23 points or more won outright, and six of them covered the spread.

College football totals leaned toward the overs during the weekend by a 28-24-1 margin. And the games with the largest totals lived up to expectations. Of the 11 games with O/Us of 60 or more, seven of them went over their totals, and one pushed. That one push came on the highest total of this season, on the Baylor/Oklahoma State matchup. Most online sportsbooks started that game off with a total of around 79, but by kickoff most outlets had bumped it all the way to 83. The game itself looked like it might stay under, with the Cowboys leading the Bears 49-3 going into the fourth quarter. OSU then allowed Baylor to score three meaningless touchdowns in the final frame, and the final ended up 59-24.

Teams ranked in the USA Today's top 25 went 13-4 SU over the weekend, but only 8-8-1 ATS. Those ranked teams going down to defeat included No. 6 Clemson, which lost at Georgia Tech; No. 11 Wisconsin, which lost for the second week in a row on a late long pass, this week at Ohio State; No. 16 Texas A&M, which blew another lead and lost in overtime to Missouri; and No. 22 Texas Tech, which, after upsetting Oklahoma last week, got upset itself, blown out at home by Iowa State.

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So through the first nine weeks of this season ranked teams are now 127-21 SU vs. unranked teams, and 79-65 vs. the pointspreads.

In the two games over the weekend that matched ranked teams No. 9 Oklahoma broke open a close game in the second half and beat No. 12 Kansas State 58-17; and No. 13 Nebraska stifled No. 10 Michigan State 24-3.

So on the season, in games matching two ranked teams, the higher-ranked outfits are now 19-9 SU and 18-8-2 ATS.

This week we get three more games involving two ranked teams to play with. As of Monday evening Bodog.eu is listing No. 4 Oklahoma State at -21 over No. 19 Kansas State; No. 8 Arkansas at -5 over No. 10 South Carolina; and in the Big Game of the year (so far) No. 2 Alabama at -5 over No. 1 LSU.

The biggest pointspread upsets of the weekend included Wyoming, at +19, beating San Diego State 30-27; Iowa State, as mentioned above, at +16, topping Texas Tech 41-7; Minnesota, at +15, beating Iowa 22-21; Virginia, at +13.5, knocking off Miami 28-21; and Missouri, at +10.5, winning at Texas A&M 38-31 in overtime.

The eight teams that pulled the biggest upsets of week 8 combined to go 1-6-1 ATS in week 9.